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Chilean doctors successfully separated conjoined twin girls after a marathon 18-hour surgery. The 10-month-old twins Maria Paz and Maria Jose are in stable condition even after losing a lot of blood and they are resting in the intensive care unit at Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital. Parents Jessica Navarrete and Roberto Paredes kept an anxious vigil at the hospital in Santiago as doctors separated the twins at the thorax, stomach and pelvis. It was the seventh and most complex operation yet for the twins. He added that the twins came out of the surgery in 'good condition'.

Navarrete said she was waiting for 'a miracle from God' when the high-risk operation began, which was widely followed in the South American country on television and the Internet. The Chilean twins presented a particularly difficult challenge because they were born sharing many of the same internal organs and even urinary system. About 100 people participated in the procedure, including 25 surgeons and anaesthesiologists.

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, one out of every 200,000 live births worldwide results in conjoined twins. About 35 per cent survive only one day, while the overall survival rate is from 5 to 25 percent.